Vermont latest to fall to top-ranked Huskies

JIM FULLER

Published
12:00 am EST, Saturday, December 5, 2009

STORRS -- May Kotsopoulos' runner in the lane was nowhere near finding its mark, but that mattered little to Tina Charles.

Since she came to UConn after a brilliant career for New York high school powerhouse Christ the King, Charles had heard Geno Auriemma challenge her to rebound as well at the defensive end as she does following her own missed shots.

So when Charles discovers that the rebound that moved her by former UConn star and assistant coach Jamelle Elliott and into second place on the Huskies' career list came on a defensive rebound, Charles should derive an additional amount of pleasure in her special moment.

When Charles grabbed the aforementioned rebound midway through the first half, the Huskies were well on their way to an 84-42 victory over previously undefeated Vermont before 8,908 at Gampel Pavilion Thursday night.

It was UConn's 46th straight win, moving the Huskies into a tie for third in the NCAA Division I women's basketball winning-streak annals.

The Huskies hold the record with 70 straight wins from 2001-03. Louisiana Tech won 54 games from 1980-82 and Tennessee won 46 straight from 1996-98.

"I will probably call her (Elliott, who was Charles' position coach for three seasons before taking the head coaching job at Cincinnati) and tell her and she will probably be upset," said Charles, who had 18 points and nine rebounds. "It is a great feeling (especially since) Coach (Geno Auriemma) is always telling me I can't rebound."

With 1,059 rebounds, Charles needs 210 to pass Rebecca Lobo to become UConn's career rebounding leader. She could also break Nykesha Sales' career scoring record at UConn before she embarks on her professional career.

"I've said that if Tina applied herself and set her mind to it, she could break every record that there is at Connecticut - scoring, rebounding, blocked shots, whatever she wants to do," Auriemma said. "If you lined up Tina and Jamelle, put them together and brought down a man from Mars down here and say 'Ok, who just passed who?' They'd go 'who?' They may have the same (numbers) but they are two entirely different people."

Maya Moore led UConn with 20 points, her fourth 20-point effort of the season and 34th of her career for UConn (7-0). Moore moved by Wendy Davis and into 13th place on UConn's career scoring list on a fast-break layup in the first half.

There was a scary moment when UConn sophomore guard Caroline Doty hit her head on the floor after attempting to split a double team and hit a transition layup.

Doty was on the court for a prolonged period before walking off the court with 5:44 to play in the first half. As she walked off the court with Auriemma, she got an earful from Auriemma wondering why she didn't pass the ball to one of her open teammates.

That was the first sign that the injury was not serious. Doty came back to start the second half.

"I guess she landed on the side of her head," Auriemma said. "They said she landed right on her head. To me that is God's way of telling her 'what the (heck) are you doing driving in there with five people standing in the lane.' So rather than catching the ball and saying I just got it from here and let me fire it over here and we get a layup or jump shot, no I think we will go this way and drive it through three people and as God read the play, he said 'I'm going to knock you on your (butt)."

Courtnay Pilypaitis led Vermont (4-1) with 20 points, but her teammates combined to shoot 10 for 38 from the field.

Pilypaitis did what she could to keep Vermont in the game, scoring 11 of the Catamounts' 18 first-half points but the other half of the only Division I women's duo to both average 20 points per game was barely a factor as Kotsopoulos, who came in averaging 20.3 points per game, Kotsopoulos had just five points.